In a nuclear reactor, fuel rods made of fissionable material such as uranium and plutonium undergo nuclear fission that converts the fuel to other elements, the products of the fission reaction. The conversion of the fissionable material is significant because it must eventually be replaced if the reaction is to be maintained. Therefore, it is necessary to constantly remove the products of the reaction and replace them with more fissionable material. Since the fissionable material is expensive, it is feasible to reprocess the fuel rods by removing the products of the reaction. The fissionable material remaining after the contaminating products have been removed can then be returned to the reactor for further reaction.
Although it is economically feasible to recover nuclear fuel, it is still extremely expensive, about $1000 per kg. This is due to the very high radioactivity of the spent fuel that makes it dangerous to handle, and the many mechanical and chemical steps involved that must be performed without operator exposure. Each major process that requires separate processing equipment carries a very high cost because of the radiation shielding requirements and the necessity of remote handling operations.
Therefore there is a continuing need to provide a method for reprocessing nuclear fuel that minimizes the number of separate processing steps needed so that shielding and remote operation costs can be reduced.